Invisible
by RosalindHawkins
Summary: After feeling invisible for so long, Ryou Bakura is surprised when he suddenly finds himself the center of Anzu's and Mai's attentions. Ryou fears, though, that the Spirit of the Millennium Ring will try to hurt them if he gets too close. Butterflyshipping that features angst, depression, attempted suicide, alcohol, smut. Please read and review!
1. Just Dance

Girls night out. That was all they had intended when Anzu and Mai left for downtown Domino that Saturday night, ready to have a fun, wild time together. They'd dressed up to the point where they felt unbelievably sexy before hitting the streets. On their way to the club, though, Anzu saw a shockingly familiar face on the opposite street corner. He stood with his head down, his shoulders hunched, his clothes baggy—but that white hair was unmistakable.

He wasn't the only one standing on that street corner, yet he managed to stand in total isolation, as if the people around him had heard the rumors, as if they'd been warned to _stay away_ at all costs. The shadows gathered at his feet seemed to whisper the words _stay away, stay away_. It was as if the people at the crosswalk knew that he was dangerous. The light changed and people crossed, but he remained standing there with his head down, swaying as he was buffeted by the air current of many bustling bodies shifting around him. Around him, but never touching him.

Anzu looked at him and saw the worst case scenario flash before her eyes: if they left him alone now, in less than a week he'd wind up dead. He'd overdose on drugs, drown himself in the harbor, jump from a skyscraper, shoot himself in the head. He looked so lonely that she didn't doubt he was depressed. If that was the case, then it was her duty to do something about it. She grabbed Mai by the hand and hauled her across the street, the busty blond protesting.

"What are you doing?" Mai called over the sound of other pedestrian's conversations.

"We're going to talk to a friend!" she answered. She went right up to Ryou and dropped Mai's hand in time to throw herself at him, tackling him with an embrace that made him stagger and almost lose his balance.

"H-Hello, Anzu," he stammered, startled by the sudden tackle. He glanced up and saw Mai behind her, noting with a bit of discomfort how the two women were dressed. "Hello, Mai."

"What are you doing out here by yourself?" Anzu asked as she released him, but she didn't wait for an answer. "If you don't have any plans, you should join us! We're going dancing at a club Mai knows downtown."

"Thank you for the offer," he answered softly. "But I'm probably under-dressed for that sort of thing."

By this point, Mai had caught on to what Anzu was doing: the teen looked depressed and she wanted to cheer him up by inviting him to join their outing. Mai couldn't help but wonder why Ryou hadn't been invited to join Yugi, Joey, and Tristan at Yugi's house that night. Wasn't he their friend too?

"I'll buy you something to wear," Mai offered, giving him her most charming smile. It was enough to make him blush.

"I don't know how to dance," he protested as Anzu linked her arm in his.

"I can teach you," she offered generously as Mai came up along his other side and linked her own arm through Ryou's, just like Anzu.

"I have a headache—"

"I have Advil." Anzu cut him off dismissively. Her mind had already been made up, and she wasn't about to let him make excuses.

"I'm tired…" Ryou made one last-ditch effort at getting away, but he could tell that neither energetic, charismatic female was about to let go of him.

"That's what caffeine is for, hon," Mai replied breezily as the two young women started leading the skittish teen away.

* * *

Ryou stood in the shadows as he tried to hide from people. He didn't feel comfortable here, and he wouldn't be here if Anzu hadn't spotted him zoning out on the street corner. He'd gone for a walk, come to a stop at a "do not walk" signal, and then just stopped. He'd slipped into something of a daze—he didn't know for how long—and then the next thing he knew, he was being glomped by the head cheerleader. Anzu was the peppiest person he knew, and one of the most assertive females he knew. The _most_ assertive female he knew had been there too, though: Mai Kujaku. When he realized that, he knew he was screwed.

Mai had paid generously to outfit him in something… flashy, even getting him a bag to put his current clothes in. He wasn't sure he liked their plan for the evening, though: hours of hard clubbing—which involved dancing, drinking, and copious flirting—followed by an equally hard crash in the hotel room Mai had already checked into. That's where Ryou's t-shirt, hoodie, and favorite sweatpants were now.

Now, he was trying to disappear into a shadowy corner of the club, his head pounding from the loud, booming music. He hadn't had much taste for human interaction after Battle City, becoming something of a hermit. His father had returned from one of his trips, and Ryou had needed to explain the reason for the hospital bill. It was nice seeing his father again, even if they'd only spent a short amount of time together before he left for another expedition. Mr. Bakura took it for granted that his son was strongly introverted and enjoyed his peaceful solitude. What he neglected to consider was that too much time alone without proper family support at home might cause his son to develop depression.

"Are you still moping over here all by yourself?" Mai called to him as she approached him with a colorful drink in each hand.

"I'm fine," he retorted, not wanting to have this conversation with her yet again. He'd already reassured them both several times that evening that there was nothing wrong with him, but they seemed entirely unconvinced.

"No, you're not," she contradicted, holding out one drink to him as she got close enough to him. "If you were fine, you'd be either dancing or drinking, and at the moment, you're doing neither."

"I can't dance and I don't drink," Ryou said simply, looking down at the drink in her hand before looking up at her, refusing to take it.

"This doesn't have alcohol in it, I thought you might be thirsty," she insisted, and he finally accepted it, not wanting to be rude. She stood beside him and threw one arm around his shoulders. He sniffed the drink nervously as she took a gulp of her own.

"You can't fool her, you know," she said lazily as he took a tentative sip of his drink. "She can tell that you're unhappy, and she can't stand to let her friends be unhappy."

Ryou made a sound of bitterness before taking another sip and saying, "That's funny, because she never seemed to notice me before."

"She has a lot of friends," Mai said as softly as she could while still being heard. "Sometimes… people fall through the cracks."

"I tend to do that a lot," Ryou muttered, still sounding bitter. He took another gulp of his drink, which now he knew had just a hint of alcohol in it, but he didn't really care at the moment.

"I always liked you," she said suddenly, making him turn to look at her in surprise. "You always seemed like a sweet guy."

"I thought you liked Joey," he replied bluntly, too shocked to be tactful.

"Joey's a knucklehead." She shrugged. "He has his moments, but he has a lot of growing up to do." She came closer to him, and Ryou could smell the fruity cocktail on her breath. "You've got your act together, though."

Ryou felt her nose press into his cheek, and in a moment of weakness, he turned his head to brush their lips together. It didn't feel like a proper kiss, though. Wasn't your first kiss supposed to be fireworks and magic? Then again, Ryou'd had enough magic to last a lifetime.

A sudden pain in his chest made him pull back suddenly, closing his eyes as he grit his teeth. He heard Mai ask if he was alright, but she sounded distant, as if he were underwater and she were calling to him from the surface. Anzu's voice joined Mai's, both speaking in concerned tones that he couldn't make sense of.

 _You didn't plan on having fun without me, did you, Yadonushi?_

The Spirit's voice was the only one that sounded clear to him as he hunched forward, his back pressed firmly against the wall.

 _Please, not now, not here,_ he begged in his mind, two pairs of hands gently guiding him to a sitting position on the floor as he clutched at his head in pain. The static in his ears finally disappeared and he could hear again, breathe again.

"Ryou, talk to me!" Anzu cried, and Ryou felt a pair of hot palms caress his cheeks. He opened his eyes, dazed, and glanced from one worried face to another.

"Do you need to lie down or something?" Mai asked, pushing his bangs back as she peered into his face, trying to judge what was wrong with him.

"I'm fine," he muttered, pulling his knees up to his chest as he looked down to avoid their gazes.

"No you're not." Mai kissed his forehead in a motherly way. She took hold of one hand while Anzu took hold of the other, both of them helping him to stand even though he didn't want to.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," Anzu said gently, stepping close and putting an arm around him as if he needed the support.

"No, stay here," he protested, trying to pull himself away from them, but they held on. Why wouldn't they just let him leave? "You came out to have fun. I don't want to ruin that. I'll find my own way home."

"You're not ruining it." Anzu smiled at him, her expression bright and sunny. Too sunny. Ryou didn't like sunlight; he found it to be a harsh thing. He preferred moon- and starlight. He always had. "If you're up for it, how about you dance with me just once before we go. Come on, it'll be fun!"

Ryou wanted to refuse, he really did, but he was tired, and she was too persistent for him to withstand. He let her drag him into the crush of gyrating bodies and put her arms around his neck as she guided them in a gentle rocking movement. She noticed his stiffness and discomfort, and guided his arms around her waist. She leaned into him and he held her close. What else could he do?

"You need to relax," she said in his ear so that he could hear her. "Just enjoy yourself for a few minutes. Is that really so hard?"

He wanted to tell her that it was, but instead, he kept his mouth shut and tried to follow her advice.

"Ryou, why were you standing on the street corner?" Anzu asked suddenly. Ryou looked over at her in surprise, brown eyes meeting blue as he tried to think of how to answer her.

"I went for a walk."

"But why were you just standing there?" she persisted.

"I don't get very much time in my own body these days," he admitted as quietly as he could. "Every time I wake up, days or weeks have passed, and I know that I don't have long before I go under again. Since I don't have long, I don't try to do much with my time."

Anzu looked saddened by this news, and pulled him into an even closer embrace. "You can always come and see me when that happens," she said in his ear. "I promise I'll always make time for you. That's what friends are for, right?"

He nodded a little, knowing that she wouldn't be satisfied without an answer. When the song ended, she guided him back to where Mai was finishing off another cocktail.

"I called us a cab," the busty blond said over the music as the two teens came up to her. "It should be here any minute."

They wormed their way out of the club and slipped inside the cab, first Anzu, then Ryou, then Mai. When they arrived at the hotel, their order stayed the same. Ryou made a token attempt to insist that he wanted to go home, but Anzu refused to let him return to an empty house. Ryou changed back into his sweats and tee and curled up on the edge of the bed, eyes fluttering closed as he dozed a little. The next thing he knew, Mai had put an arm around his waist and dragged him to the middle of the bed. Anzu was helping him to slide under the covers, and he was too tired to notice that both women wore minimal sleepwear.

"Don't be sad anymore, Ryou," Anzu whispered sweetly, kissing his cheek.

"I thought you liked Yugi?" he asked blearily, eliciting a laugh from both females.

"Yugi's clueless," she replied with a smile. "Besides, he's more proud than he'd like to admit. You're much more… humble."

She let her lips hover over his, kissing him with a feather-light touch. Then she settled herself down beside him, both women with an arm around the depressed teen they'd rescued from his own mind that night. Ryou couldn't remember the last time he'd fallen asleep feeling so warm, so loved. He couldn't remember the last time he fell asleep wearing a smile.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	2. Stay With Me

It was a girl's night in, and since Anzu's parents were out of town that weekend on a little trip together for their anniversary and Anzu had the house to herself, she'd invited Mai over for some girl talk and bonding. It was pretty late already, and both girls were wearing tank tops and itty bitty pajama shorts.

"He's such a dear," Mai sighed as she rested one foot on the coffee-table and crossed her other leg over it. "I can see why all the girls at your school like him so much."

"Sometimes I'm afraid they like him _too_ much, if you know what I mean." Anzu sat beside Mai and curled her legs up under herself on the couch. "I try to spot the stalker ones and scare them off before they do any damage, but I don't know how many of them get by me." She opened her can of orange soda, took a sip, and sighed again. "I think that's part of the reason he gets pushed around so much at school. All the girls like him, so all the guys get jealous and lash out, as if that will make him less popular with the girls."

"And it doesn't?" Mai asked in surprise, looking up from her magazine.

"Not at all, and I know he wishes that both groups would just stop, but he doesn't know how to make that happen."

Anzu looked disheartened, so Mai decided to change the subject.

"How about we play Screw-Marry-Kill while I make the popcorn?" She set down her magazine and stood up, going back to the kitchen where Anzu had just been.

"The other cheerleaders call it Bed-Wed-Dead, but sure, let's play." Anzu thought for a moment as Mai took the popcorn bag out of its plastic wrapping. "Okay, how about: Duke, Tristan, and Kaiba."

Mai laughed aloud. "Oh, that's just too easy! I'd kill Tristan, screw Duke, and marry Kaiba. After all, you can't get a piece of that _massive_ fortune unless you marry him. He's probably not bad in bed, either," she added with a naughty smirk. Now _that_ was something Anzu'd never considered before. "What would you do?"

"I'd probably... screw Kaiba, marry Duke, and kill Tristan. I'm sorry, but I just can't _stand_ Kaiba's arrogance! I could _not_ spend the rest of my life with him!"

"You wouldn't have to. I got one word for you, love: Alimony." She winked at the teen before continuing. "Marik, Joey, and Ryou," Mai proposed as the microwave nuked their popcorn to life.

"I'd... screw Marik, marry Ryou, and..." She sighed with regret. "Kill Joey. He's too much of a goof for me."

"He's... playful," Mai corrected with a smirk. "I'd screw Joey, marry Ryou, and kill Marik." Her voice became bitter. "After the time I spent in the Shadow Realm, I'm not going to take the risk that his dark side comes back."

"Fair enough," Anzu conceded. "Valon, Rafael, and Yugi."

"I'd kill Valon," Mai answered immediately, without hesitation. _That_ was something she didn't need to think about. "Marry Rafael, and screw Yugi. You?"

"I'd screw Rafael, marry Yugi, and kill Valon."

"Oh! How about this: Yami Yugi, Yami Bakura, and Yami Marik." Mai seemed quite pleased with herself for having come up with this proposition.

"I'd marry Yami Yugi. That one's easy. Hmm..." Anzu felt stuck with the other two. "If, hypothetically, we could kill the yami without hurting their host, I would kill... Oh, bother, this one's too hard." She flopped down onto the couch, staring at the ceiling with a troubled expression. "I feel like Yami Marik is the most dangerous one, so I'd want to kill him before he killed me, but if I could free Ryou from the Spirit of the Millennium Ring by killing him, I would. I can't answer this one, I need a pass."

"Nope! Can't pass! That's against the rules." The microwave beeped, and Mai opened the little door, the smell of fresh popcorn filling the room. As Mai looked for a bowl to put the popcorn in, Anzu heard a knock at the door and went to answer it. She was very much surprised by who she saw standing there.

"Oh, hello Ryou," she greeted, her cheeriness fading quickly as she noticed the faint splatter of blood on his cheek. "Are you alright?"

"I didn't know where else to go," he said, sounding strained, his eyes wide with what she could only term fear. "You said I could see you when this sort of thing happens, so..."

"When what sort of thing...? Oh! Yes, of course!" She remembered now that she'd told Ryou when he woke up from Bakura's control and didn't know what to do with himself, or just wanted some company, he could come to her.

She opened the door for him, and as he entered, she took him in with a glance: the long black coat whose sleeves hid his hands; the ripped jeans; the dirty sneakers; the light blue v-neck shirt with a blood stain on his stomach.

"Oh my god! What happened, are you hurt?" Anzu sounded nearly hysterical as she questioned him, and her hysteria alerted Mai and drew her out of the kitchen back to the main living area. She was just as startled as Anzu by the sight.

"I-I don't think it's mine," he answered numbly, staring down at the stain as Anzu closed the door behind him. He didn't know if he was glad of that or not. Some part of him would have preferred that the blood was his, simply because it meant that the blood wasn't somebody else's.

"Let's get you out of those clothes and into something clean." Anzu grabbed Ryou by the arm and dragged him upstairs. She released him by the entrance to the bathroom, then ducked into a bedroom and flicked the light on. "My older brother's at college, so you can borrow some of his clothes," she called as she rummaged through a few drawers to find what she needed. She reappeared with a t-shirt and a pair of sweat-pants in dark colors. She held them out to him, saying, "Here you go."

He lifted his hands to reach out, but pulled them back, looking down at them with concern. Anzu lowered the clothes so that they no longer blocked her view of his hands, then gasped. They were covered in blood. No wonder he'd hidden them in his sleeves. His face was starting to look green, so Anzu stepped into the bathroom, turned the light on, set the clothes down on top of the toilet lid, and pulled him inside. He was shell-shocked, and she took it upon herself to help him in every way she could. After all, that's what friends were for.

She helped him out of his coat, draping it over one arm before turning the sink tap on for him. She picked up the soap bottle and said, "Hold out your hands." He did as he was told, and she pumped some soap into his hands. "Wash up, get changed, then come back downstairs and we'll talk this out, okay?" He nodded without looking at her, and although she was a bit worried about leaving him alone, she didn't have much choice. She took his coat downstairs with her, where she found Mai nibbling on some popcorn.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, still holding the coat. There was probably blood on it too, and she didn't want to put it down lest it stain something.

"We'll let him stay with us, of course," Mai answered matter-of-factly.

"No, I mean about... the evidence."

"Evidence?"

"If the blood's not his and it's someone else's, it's entirely possible that the Spirit _killed_ someone," she whispered, starting to panic.

"Anything with blood on it, we burn." Mai shrugged nonchalantly, as if this should have been obvious to Anzu. "Evidence destroyed."

"Will that really be enough?" Anzu asked worriedly.

"I have no idea, but it's the least we can do to protect him. Put his shirt and his coat in a plastic grocery bag, and I'll take care of it tomorrow when I leave."

Anzu obeyed, although she didn't have his shirt yet, so she'd simply add it to the bag later.

"We can't get in trouble for doing this, can we?" Anzu asked worriedly as Mai carefully tucked the open grocery bag into her duffel bag.

"The first amendment protects freedom of association. Friendship counts as association. Also, the fifth amendment protects us from incriminating ourselves in the obstruction of justice."

"How do you know all that?"

"Netflix, babe." Mai grinned at her. "There are plenty of studs in those crime shows."

* * *

Ryou pumped more soap into his hand and plunged them back under the burning water as he tried to wash the last traces of blood from his hands. It was still there, he could feel it, even though the water no longer ran red and pink.

He'd dressed in Anzu's brother's clothes after washing his hands the first time, but after that, he found himself staring at his hands again. There was still blood under his fingernails and he couldn't get it out. He'd probably been washing his hands for a solid five minutes now.

"Ryou? How are you doing?" Anzu's voice was preceded by a brief knock on the door.

"I'm fine," he muttered, but she couldn't hear him over the sound of the water running. Tentatively, she cracked the door open and looked at him with concern.

"What are you doing?"

"Washing my hands."

"They look clean to me."

"It's still there."

"What?"

He held out his hands and showed her the blood crusted under his fingernails. Anzu turned the water off before he could immerse his hands again and dropped a hand-towel on them, patting them dry herself.

"Mai can help with that," she assured, trying to sound calm so that he calmed down too. She studied his expression as he watched her dry his hands, noticing for the first time that his hair was rather messy, as if it hadn't been brushed in a couple days. "Can I... brush your hair for you?" she asked, and he nodded, not really caring. She dropped the hand-towel on the sink, grabbed her hairbrush and a spray-bottle of leave-in conditioner, and took him by the hand to lead him downstairs.

Mai was on the couch with the popcorn and an extra bottle of water for Ryou. Anzu seated him in the middle of the couch, saying, "Mai, can you get your manicure kit? He needs help with these." She held out Ryou's hand with the fingers extended, Ryou limp like a marionette in her hands.

"Of course, love."

Anzu sat beside Ryou, grabbing a remote to turn on the TV, switch to Netflix, and put on a sitcom. She thought something light-hearted would be best for him right now.

As Anzu wet his hair with the detangler and gently brushed out all the knots, Mai carefully cleaned the dried blood out from under his fingernails using her sharp tools. She didn't seem fazed by it at all, and once he realized that the dangerous looking utensil in her hand wouldn't hurt him, he wasn't fazed by it either.

"How do you feel, dear?" Mai asked after a few moments of silence.

Ryou shrugged. "Tired, I guess. Kind of... hungry."

"You should have said so!" Anzu dropped the hairbrush and popped up off the couch. "What are you hungry for? I can make you anything you want. We could order in pizza, or Chinese."

"A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is good enough for me, thanks," he replied, looking grateful. "Well, maybe two."

"Not a problem!"

"There, your left hand is done," Mai said as Anzu left, reaching for Ryou's right hand. "So, aside from hungry and tired, how do you feel?"

"Guilty," he admitted softly.

"Nothing's your fault," she said firmly, looking up at him with earnest eyes. "You know that, right?"

"But isn't it, though?" Ryou countered, clearly feeling awful about whatever had happened. "I should have—"

Mai silenced him with a kiss, not wanting to hear another word about how he thought he was to blame. Ryou was hesitant to reciprocate; this was a new kind of kiss for him and he didn't know what to do. She pulled away and lifted a hand to his cheek, smiling at his stunned expression.

"Don't blame yourself for it anymore, okay?"

He nodded a little and let her put her arm around him.

Ryou ate his sandwiches while Anzu finished brushing his hair and Mai tried to explain the basic premise of the sitcom they were watching. Mai offered to give him a proper manicure, which he politely turned down. Then she offered to pierce his ears for him, which he also politely refused. By the time she was offering to give him a make-over, he had caught on that she was teasing him and was actually laughing a little at the way she tried to persuade him.

"Are you not done with my hair yet?" Ryou asked, tipping his head back to look at Anzu, who'd moved to sit on the cushion behind him on the couch as she work on his hair. "It never takes _me_ this long to brush it."

Anzu sighed adoringly as she finally put down the brush and combed her fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry, but I just _love_ your hair. I remember when mine was this long, but I never knew what to do with it, so I got it cut." She moved out from behind Ryou and plopped herself onto the couch beside him. She toyed with her hair for a moment, looking worried. "Sometimes I wonder if I should have kept it long."

"I like it short," Ryou said suddenly. "It suits you."

"Aw, thank you. That's so sweet of you to say." Ansu looked positively smitten as she pecked his cheek and lay her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her and smiled a little, starting to feel warm and normal again. Mai, not to be outdone, leaned against his other shoulder, and he put his arm around her too. With a woman snuggled under each arm, Ryou relaxed into the cushion behind him.

They watched episodes of the sitcom until they couldn't keep their eyes open any longer. Ryou opted to sleep on the couch, but Anzu wouldn't dream of it. Ryou then offered to sleep in Anzu's brother's room, but that wasn't good enough for her either. She disn't want him to be alone, for his own sake. She was worried about him, and rightfully so. When she insisted intransigently that he sleep in her room with her and Mai, he seemed a tiny bit relieved.

That's how the three of them came to be tucked into Anzu's queen-sized bed with Ryou in the middle, just like last time. He was much more _aware_ of himself this time, though. He was much more _aware_ of the attractive female bodies on either side of him, and his hormones were quite aware of them too.

The moment he closed his eyes to sleep, he began to remember, in a vague, hazy, dream-like stupor, why his hands and clothes had been so blood-stained.

A dark alley…

A contorted face leering at him the shadows…

The squelch of a knife sinking into the gut of the man in front of him…

His hands, now slicked with crimson, digging into the man's body in search of something…

Ryou jerked awake with a gasp, feeling disoriented, as if he'd been falling. He panted softly, feeling sick to his stomach as he tried to block the images from his mind. Disgust and fear overwhelmed him and he started to tremble all over as his breathing grew labored. His hands gripped the covers tightly, as if that would make him feel better.

"Ryou? Are you okay?" Anzu asked through a yawn as she tugged off her sleeping mask to peer at him. She was a light sleeper, and his visceral reaction to the revelations of his dream was enough to rouse her. She could feel him shaking beside her, and it was worrying. She checked her alarm clock and murmured, "It's only been two hours since we went to bed."

"I'm scared," he whispered, sounding every bit like the child who ran to his parent's bedroom after a nightmare. His terrified tones made Anzu melt, and she put an arm around him to press their bodies together. She cradled his head against her chest, letting him bury his face into her breasts as she stroked his hair. She understood that he had a good reason to be scared.

"You're safe," she assured softly, not knowing what else to say. Ryou had been determined not to cry in front of them, but now, wrapped up in her kind warmth, he broke down.

"I just want to be free from him," he whispered, his first tears being soaked by her t-shirt. "When he hurts people, it's _my_ fault, because I can't stop him."

"Nobody thinks that," she protested softly, but it didn't seem to help.

"It's true though, even if you don't believe it," he continued in despair. He sniffled, the tears heavy on his eyelashes and obscuring his vision enough to make her cradle his head close again. "He killed a man, which is as good as me killing him."

"No, it's not!" Anzu refused to let him believe that he was responsible for the actions of the Spirit. "You are not guilty. You've done nothing wrong. You should be proud of yourself for being so strong in the face of all this."

"But I'm _not_ ," he whispered, tearing up again. He didn't have the heart to tell her how he'd considered ending his own life more than once. The logic for it was airtight as far as he knew: if the spirit needed him to survive, and he died, then the spirit died too. He couldn't upset Anzu by saying that, though, so instead he sobbed, "It's so hard to hold on. Some days, I don't feel like it's even worth it."

"Come and talk to _me_ on those days." Anzu was crying too, now. "Whenever you're struggling, come to me, and I'll stop whatever I'm doing to help you. I promise." She tilted his head back a little so that she could look him in the eye with a weak smile. "You know that nothing's more important to me than the wellbeing of my friends."

"You shouldn't have to, though," Ryou sighed as he saw himself interrupting Anzu at the most inconvenient times without meaning to. "Oh, I miss my mum," he cried suddenly, more tears flowing as he pressed into her again. "I miss my sister…"

"You have a sister?" Anzu was surprised. Why hadn't he ever mentioned her before?

"Had," he corrected in anguish, his voice muffled. "I _had_ a sister. I _had_ a mum. If they were still around, maybe none of this would have ever happened…"

"Oh. I'm so sorry, Ryou. I didn't know…" She couldn't bear the thought of losing her mother and brother, left only with her dad. That sounded awful, and she was starting to understand his hopelessness a bit better.

"Sometimes I just want to run away from it all, you know? Run far enough away that I can't hurt anyone."

"The next time you're at your wit's end, just give me a call. My parents have a mansion as big as Kaiba's, and it's just as well staffed, so if you really need to disappear for a few days, or even a week, I can take you there, and you won't have to worry about being in anyone's way."

Mai's voice startled them both, but Ryou more so. His heart throbbed in his just as he tried to calm his nerves.

"Goodness, you two. Do you plan on crying a river and dying of dehydration? No more crying. Tears aren't going to help anyone." She reached out to put an arm around his waist, forcing Anzu to release her hold on him as Mai pulled him across the bed. He was lying on his back now, his eyes widening in shock as she sat up a little to strip off her tank top, then used the soft hem of it to dab at his tear-stained cheeks. His breath caught in his throat as blood flowed from his head to his groin. Even in the dim light, he could still clearly make out the rosettes on her leopard-print bra and the crease of her cleavage.

"Mai!" Anzu exclaimed indignantly, sitting up too and gathering Ryou in her arms to pull him away from Mai, who was puzzled by this behavoir.

"What?"

"Don't strip in front of him! He's innocent!" Anzu seemed fully convinced of her statement, which made Mai giggle.

"Sweetie, your faith in him is astounding, but honestly, there's no such thing as an innocent teenage boy. I bet even Yugi's seen porn."

"He has not!" Anzu seemed insulted by the accusation, but Ryou remained silent, his face turning hot and red.

"Ryou, has Yugi seen any porn?" Mai asked, turning to the only one in the room who had a shot at knowing the truth of the issue. Ryou swallowed hard, unsure he really wanted to answer this question.

"Tristan showed it to us," he admitted shamefully. "We told him to turn it off."

"See? It's nothing he hasn't seen before. Besides, have you ever considered that this might be exactly what he needs?"

Ryou was starting to grow more embarrassed by the moment, and he carefully extracted himself from Anzu's arms so that he could sit up too and pull his knees up to his chest to hide his growing erection. He could feel a squabble coming on, and he hated the idea of being in the middle of this.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, don't play ignorant with me," Mai said with a roll of her eyes. "You know what I mean. He needs a relationship. He needs intimacy. He needs _us_." She reached across the bed to hold Anzu's hand in hers. "He needs to feel connected and he needs support. We can do that, so let's stop pretending that we're all just friends."

"But we _are_ friends!"

"We're _more_ than friends, and you know it." Mai turned her head then to look at Ryou, and Anzu did the same. The startled teen swallowed hard, feeling trapped. What were they talking about? He was so confused.

"We love you, Ryou," Anzu murmured, her eyes going soft as she spoke the sweet words.

"And we want to show how we love you, if you'd let us. So, what will it be?"

* * *

 **Please review!**


	3. Runnin'

Yami Bakura rolled off the edge of the bed slowly so as not to disturb his female bedfellows as the cuddled together in the early hours of the morning. He'd let Ryou have uninterrupted time with them last night. He'd even let Ryou enjoy fellatio from Mai last night without interfering. Now, though, he had things to do and places to be, and he wasn't going to show these "friends" any mercy if they tried to stop him.

He didn't like the idea of Ryou having close friends at all. If Ryou had close friends, he'd have people wondering about his whereabouts and his plans, and that was the last thing he wanted. He needed freedom in order to operate the way he liked, which was why he'd encouraged Mr. Bakura's constant expiditions that separated him from his son. Family and friends would get in the thief's way, so he needed to plant a seed of doubt in Anzu's mind. Thief that he was, he knew exactly how best to do this.

He crept up to the dresser where Anzu's jewelry box sat. Thankfully, it wasn't a music box, so he could open it silently and rumage about for something valuable amongst the cheap plastics and metal alloys and cubic zirconia. He found a slim fourteen karat gold chain with a saltwater pearl pendant: a simple, modest piece of jewelry probably given to her by her parents when she was in her early teens. He pocketed the necklace with every intention of pawning it, then, overcome with a greedy curiosity, slunk his way to Anzu's parents' bedroom where her mother's jewelry box awaited his sticky fingers.

He left with a pair of diamond earrings and an emerald-encrusted hair-clip in addition to Anzu's necklace. Once downstairs, he began to look for his coat. When he finally found it in Mai's suitcase, he pulled it on and checked his inner pocket for his knife. Good, it was still there, along with the knife tip that had broken off in his victim the night before when he stabbed him. Wary of leaving behind such a distinctive piece of evidence, he'd dug around inside the wretched man's gut until found, thus bloodying his hands and forearms until he found the sharp triangle of metal. He needed to get a new knife.

Then he fled the Mazaki household, his blood-stained shirt left behind in Anzu's bathroom. It was the only thing he'd left behind. He returned to Ryou's house. He had errands to run, but not in broad daylight. He needed to wait until night arrived, when he would be in his element. So, with no reason to stick around, he returned to his soul-room and let his host wake atop the sheets of his own bed.

"How am I...? When did...?" Ryou was confused, helplessly so, but he figured there was only one reasonable explanation: the Spirit of the Millennium Ring. He stood, not surprised that he didn't feel the need to stretch. His body was already invigorated from the spirit's mild antics that morning. He shuffled out of his clothes with a droll expression and took a long, lazy shower.

He would have loved to wake up and have Mai and Anzu be the first people he saw. He'd always wondered what it was like to have the first thing you see in the morning be the face of your lover.

Thinking of last night as he stood beneath a steady flow of warm water aroused the teen more than he'd intended, but once he started thinking of Mai's mouth enveloping his member, her wet lips sealed to the base, the tightness of her throat—

Unable to shake the memory that filled his stomach with tightly coiled heat, Ryou seized his own member and squeezed. His moan echoed faintly in the small bathroom, and was quickly followed by an echo of cold, haughty laughter. Ryou opened his eyes to see the spirit leaning casually against the shower wall, arms crossed and lips curled in a faint smirk.

"You really do put on quite a show, Yadonushi." His gravelly voice was laced with disdain and sadistic pleasure as the youth's face turned a deep shade of scarlet.

"Get out," he whispered above the sound of water, frozen in place by those cold eyes glaring daggers into his soul.

"No." Bakura was unabashed about soaking in everything he could see of the teen.

"Don't look at me." Ryou covered himself with both hands, wanting nothing more than for the spirit to just go away.

"Do you think I care one bit about what you do or do not want?" Bakura hissed, pushing away from the wall and stepping closer to Ryou, who was too afraid to step back. The spirit stopped only when he was as close to Ryou as he could possibly get without actually touching him.

"I know you don't." The words were almost inaudible as they fell from the brown-eyed boy's lips.

"Try to remember that next time so you can save your breath." Bakura turned away in scorn and left the shower, his spirit wandering to do whatever it was he cared to do. Ryou never had any idea where he went when he wandered as a spirit. Before Bakura had gone very far, though, his host's voice stopped him, calling him back.

"Would it hurt you so much to be a little kind to me every now and then?"

Ryou was hidden from Bakura's eyes by the shower curtain, but he could tell by the pitch of his voice that he was upset, probably about to cry.

"It would not benefit me, so I see no reason to."

* * *

"I can't find him anywhere." Anzu sighed in defeat and sat beside Mai on her bed, looking glum. "He must have gone home already. Why would he leave so early?"

"He might have just been embarrassed," Mai suggested as she rubbed Anzu's shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure he's fine."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Anzu asked, watching as Mai's orchid eyes betrayed her true feelings.

"Neither of us know why he left, so we shouldn't jump to conclusions." Mai kissed Anzu's cheek and continued in a more cheerful voice. "Come on, let's have some breakfast. I make a killer omelet."


	4. Fallen Angel

Anzu didn't see Ryou again for a few days. When she found him, he was sitting on a park bench wearing dark clothes and staring at the ground. He was zoning out again, and it scared her to see him like that. At the same time, she was relieved that he hadn't been hunted down and arrested by police. Nobody—save doctors and hunters—got up to their elbows in blood like that without breaking the law somehow. And Ryou was neither of those things.

"Hey Ryou!" she called as she changed direction to run towards him. He started at the sound of his name. When his eyes fell on Anzu, though, he didn't smile, as she'd expected him to. He stood stiffly as the spunky brunette approached, stepping away when she reached out to hug him. His hands were shoved firmly into the pockets of his jeans.

"Ryou, what's wrong?" She looked hurt that he'd avoided her, and wide blue eyes clouded over with confusion.

"Stay away from me." His whispered warning was filled with fear, his dark eyes looking unbearably hollow and empty.

"What?"

"I'm dangerous." Shamefaced, he dropped his gaze to the ground again, taking another step back. "If you keep getting close, then you'll be next."

"You shouldn't let your life be dictated by your fear of—"

Anzu began to reprimand him in a way that she hoped would also be motivating, but stopped short when he suddenly removed his hand from his pocket and held something out to her, something she recognized. Something she'd been looking for.

"My necklace?" She carefully plucked it from his hand and examined it closely to ascertain that it was the same one her father had given her for her twelfth birthday. It was, and she carefully slipped it into the inside pocket of her purse before looking back at him. "How did you get it?"

Ryou didn't answer, just put his hand back in his pocket and kept his gaze fixed on the ground. His face visibly burned with shame, and it only took a few moments for Anzu to draw her own conclusions.

"You took it, didn't you?" Her features now contorted into anger. "You stole it!" She marched forward and slapped him, Ryou maintaining his disturbing silence. She stalked away from him without looking back, and he pressed a hand to the cheek that stung, then plopped back onto the bench.

"You really thought she'd understand," Bakura chuckled as his ghostly image appeared beside Ryou. "You _actually_ thought she'd be able to understand without you explaining it to her. You clearly don't know her nearly as well as you think you do."

"I should have known better than to make a bet with you," Ryou mumbled, placing his elbows on his knees and dropping his head into his hands. "I should know better than to bet at all. My luck is awful."

"It's not your _luck_ that's awful," Bakura chimed, sounding almost as if he were about to say something kind. Ryou lifted his head slightly, turning it just enough to glance up at Bakura's eyes through the veil of his own hair. The spirit smirked as he continued, "It's your _destiny_ that sucks!" He cackled maniacally as Ryou dropped his head again. "You were always meant to be a loser!" His host sniffed and rubbed at one tired eye.

"I could handle being someone who doesn't win _often_ ," the lonely teen muttered to himself, far past the point of caring if someone heard him. "But I seem to lose everything no matter what. I get the wrong end of every deal, the short end of every stick... Sure, other people have survived losing their mother or their sister, or both like me. But who else has had to put up with something like _you?_ "

"Relatively few throughout history," Bakura answered calmly, not even looking at the boy. "Although, if I'm being completely honest, you still get the worst deal out of all of them. Alexander of Macedonia probably had it best: together we conquered millions of people." His tone and expression took on an aspect of affectionate reminiscence, so much so that it sickened his landlord. "The pillaging, the battles, the sieges, the jewels, the massacres, the slaves, the screams..."

"Shut _up_." Ryou had his hands clamped over his ears and his eyes squeezed shut.

"What, do my memories bother you, Yadonushi?" Bakura leered over the boy, and even though he knew his form was incorporeal, Ryou couldn't help but cringe and draw back. The spirit laughed scornfully and leaned away. "You're pathetic."

"I am _not_ ," Ryou whined, trying to maintain a shred of dignity, even though he knew it was a lost cause. The more he thought about it, the more he hated his own life.

* * *

It was half past midnight when Ryou stumbled home in a stupor. In retaliation to Bakura's harsh and unending criticism, Ryou had gone out that night. Because of Bakura's goading and Ryou's inability to let the spirit get the better of him, he now had fifty dollars in his pocket from giving head to a stranger of the "tall, dark, and handsome" variety.

They'd done it in the alleyway beside the night club, and the rots of Ryou's hair still ached from the man's sharp tugging.

His mind was still foggy and he knew that if he stopped to think about what he'd done, he'd start to hate himself. So he didn't. He hummed the tune of "Fallen Angel" by Three Days Grace, singing the words in his head as he dragged himself upstairs to his room.

 _Fallen angel, in the dark, never thought you'd fall so far.  
Fallen angel, close your eyes, I won't let you fall tonight.  
Fallen angel, just let go, you don't have to be alone.  
Fallen angel, close your eyes, I won't let you fall tonight.  
Fallen angel..._

* * *

Bakura'd never had so much fun with Yadonushi before. This past week had been a series of dares, bets, and tricks that dragged his host deeper into his isolation and confusion. This last bet was perhaps the greatest one yet, the culmination of his efforts to drive Ryou into an absolute surrender. The day he finally gave up trying to live in his own body was the day Bakura's path to power became clear. Right now, Ryou's pathetic persistent attempts to engage in society and be fulfilled by human interaction were the only things standing in his way. The pale-haired boy mattered far more than he believed, which was exactly why Bakura needed him to believe the opposite.

"I bet you won't do it," the spirit jeered as Ryou focused on the music blasting in his ears. He could still hear Bakura of course. Nothing could drown out his voice.

"It won't come to that," Ryou said quietly, swaplowing hard as he dropped his gaze a little to look down at the street several hundred feet below where he sat, perched on the edge of a skyscraper. It was the KaibaCorp HQ. That was Bakura's idea. He'd thought it would be funny at the time. Ryou didn't think it was funny at all.

He checked his watch for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Twenty-two and a half minutes have passed," he informed the spirit with a hint of reluctance. He would have thought that someone would notice a suicidal teen on the ledge of a roof by now. He only made this insane bet with Bakura because he'd counted on that.

"That means seven and a half minutes until I win the bet." Bakura grinned like a cheshire cat. "I still don't believe that you'll follow through with your side of the the bet when you lose."

"If," Ryou corrected stiffly. "If I lose."

"You know you will. Just admit it."

"No." Ryou may be on the verge of ending his life, but he'd wait the full half hour prescribed by their bet to give people a chance to see him and stop him. If he lost, though… He glanced down at the ground and swallowed again. How long would it take for him to fall?


	5. Say Something

It was Saturday, so most KaibaCorp employees were home. Seto Kaiba was not "most employees," however; as such, he was working at the office during the weekend. He'd just ended a conference call with a potential business connection in the UK when he heard a soft thudding from behind him. He sat still, and waited for the sound to be repeated. There it was again. He stood from his desk chair and looked out the window, trying to determine the cause of the noise. He heard it again, and this time, he looked up. He could just barely make out the bottoms of a pair of sneakers at the top edge of his window. The feet bumped against his window again, and he sighed with annoyance, turning back to his desk and paging his secretary.

"Send Roland in, and tell him to pull up all security footage of people entering the building today," he ordered gruffly, then pulled out his cell and called 911.

"There's someone on the roof of KaibaCorp, sitting on the edge. He's probably going to jump."

A slight pause as Roland came in and connected the security footage the large TV on the wall opposite Kaiba's desk.

"No, it's not the same person as last week. This one has shoes. I'm pulling up security footage now. I'll send you a picture so you can get an ID."

He turned his eyes to the TV screen as the footage was played at an increased pace.

Kaiba moved the receiver away from his mouth and said, "Roland, I need you to increase manual security at all entries and exits."

"Yes, Master Kaiba." Roland paused the footage the moment someone entered who wasn't supposed to be there. The quirk of a single eyebrow was the only expression of his surprise.

"My Chief Security Officer is sending you the footage now," he informed the police dispatcher. "His name's Ryou Bakura. My guard won't give you any trouble when you get here."

"What is your relationship with the victim?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes and answered, "I don't _know_ him, so there _is_ no relationship. He's a former classmate and the friend of an acquaintance, nothing more."

Then he hung up, having nothing more to say. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, but the occurrences were becoming less frequent due to increased security.

It made sense that if someone wanted to commit suicide by jumping, they'd jump from one of the tallest buildings in Domino City. That didn't make Kaiba any less annoyed by it. He didn't need the stigma of suicides casting its shadow over his company. He was still doing damage control from the Big Five wreaking havoc on his Virtual Reality game. The amount of reprogramming it had required delayed its release by ten months, costing KaibaCorp so much in losses that he'd had to let people go just to stay in the black.

It was in his interest to keep people from jumping off his building. Nobody that knew him would accuse him of acting out of any semblance or vestige of compassion. At least, not to his face.

* * *

 **Author Notes** : No Euroshipping, I swear! Butterflyshipping, not Euroshipping... Must resist the urge... I don't even know where this is going, otherwise I would have made this chapter longer with some kind of conclusion. X_X


	6. Just Give Me A Reason

"Less than thirty seconds, Yadonushi," the spirit of the Millennium Ring reminded the despairing teen. "I'd say it's not a bad time for you to stand."

Ryou swallowed hard, his heart beating so hard he could almost hear it. He stood slowly, carefully, his limbs moving of their accord, as if Bakura were acting as his puppeteer. Looking down at how small the people on the ground looked made the teen's mouth go dry. He was so afraid, he could scarcely breathe.

He didn't want to do this. Yes, his life sucked and he hated himself, but he wasn't ready to die. The only reason he'd agreed to this bet at all was because he was sure that someone would have noticed him by now.

And he _wanted_ to be noticed. He wanted someone to care enough to give him a reason to stay when everything always seemed to be going wrong for him. He couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel; maybe he just needed someone to show it to him.

Meanwhile, Bakura was unconcerned about what would happen now. He'd already planned for this. He wouldn't let Ryou fall, but neither would he let the teen walk away from this. Ryou's body would finally be his, and his alone.

"Five, four, three..."

"Wait!" Ryou gasped as he looked down and saw emergency response vehicles arriving in front of the building. He sighed with relief, and leaned back a bit, about to step back onto the roof, then stiffened as realization settled in. He couldn't just back off the ledge _now_ ; what would he tell them? "Oh, sorry for troubling you, I changed my mind"?

"Why do you care what they think of you, Yadonushi?" Bakura scoffed. "They already think you're screwed up in the head. You can't get much worse than that."

"Maybe I should go back inside and find somewhere to hide..." Ryou mused aloud, becoming increasingly agitated. He was already upset before the police and ambulance had appeared, but now he was even more so. "All of this was such a mistake," he groaned, beginning to hyperventilate as he continued to hold his balance on the narrow ledge. "I should never have listened to you, not about any of it. Why did I ever listen to you at all?" he fretted, emergency respondents rushing to the top of the skyscraper, intending to save Ryou from himself.

"What's going to happen to me when they get here?" he asked, turning his head slightly to look at the ghost beside him.

"They'll put you in a straight-jacket and send you to the loony bin," Bakura answered sarcastically. "How the hell am _I_ supposed to know?"

"But they will, though, won't they?" Ryou began to wring his hands in front of him. His brain was frozen, and he couldn't think. All he knew was that there was no good way out of this situation.

"If you don't want their resources to be wasted, we could always _give_ them a reason to cart you off to the hospital." Bakura's crimson eyes glinted cruelly at his host. Ryou didn't know what he had in mind, but he was too afraid of too many things to fight back when Bakura rushed him and sent Ryou into blackness.

When the pair of police officers and paramedics emerged onto the roof, Bakura was acting as Ryou, pathetic eyes wide with innocence and despair as he looked over his shoulder at the newcomers. The officers had their guns drawn, since they didn't know what kind of situation they were walking into.

"Put your hands where we can see them," one of them ordered, his voice calm and authoritative. Bakura put both small hands in the air, revealing that he was unarmed. The officers exchanged a look, nodded slightly, and holstered their fire-arms.

"You don't want to do this," one of them said slowly, taking another step forward. "How do you think your father would feel if he came home to find you'd died?" Since Kaiba had given them his name, they'd been able to look him up and learn about his situation.

"If he cared about me at all, he'd be home," Bakura whined, voice high and quivering with the threat of tears as he lowered his hands to his sides. "He doesn't care, though, does he?" He looked back out over the edge. "That's why he's not home."

"What about your friends, Ryou? What would they think?"

"My friends?" Bakura made his eyes water by tapping into Ryou's reservoir of negative emotions and all the sad thoughts that swirled there provided him with more to say. "I'm invisible to them. They always seem to forget about me..."

"Just step down and we can figure this out. This isn't the only solution to your problems. At least let us try to help you, and if our methods fail, you can always come back, but give us a chance to help you."

Bakura bit his bottom lip, giving his tearful face an anxious look. "It's too late for that he whispered, shaking his head a little. He swayed backwards, and someone rushed forward to catch him before he fell. They carefully lowered him to the ground, and in doing so, an empty bottle of cough syrup fell out of the front pocket of his hoodie.

* * *

Kaiba watched for a few moments as the ambulance drive away with its sirens blaring, then looked down at his cell again, scrolled to the bottom of his contacts, and pushed call.

"Hello?"

"Yugi, you should learn to take better care of your own." Kaiba turned back to his desk as he sat down again.

"Kaiba? What do you mean?" Yugi was confused for more reasons than one.

"I mean that you should pay more attention to your friends so they don't try to kill themselves and end up at the hospital." Kaiba's reply was cool and disdainful, entirely dispassionate.

"Wait, what?! Who? How do you—?!" Yugi's initial reaction was total and utter panic.

"If you can't figure out who it is, then you have no right to lecture me on friendship ever again." He hung up and resumed the work with which he'd been occupied before the dramatic disruption.

* * *

 **Author Notes** : Don't ask, because I don't even know... O_O


	7. Don't Panic

"Now _that_ is what I'm talking about!" Mai exclaimed, sounding pleased as she snapped the bra clasp closed between Anzu's shoulder blades. She wrapped her arms around Anzu's stomach from behind and rested her chin on the teen's shoulder. "I told you this red would look lovely against your skin, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Anzu conceded with a small blush as she observed herself in the mirror the way the red lace bra lifted and supported her breasts. She was tempted, so very tempted, to buy it.

After seeing Anzu's drawer of inner- and under-wear, she'd clicked her tongue in disapproval and insisted on taking Anzu out to Victoria's Secret for a spree. When one of the shop assistant's had offered to help measure Anzu to check that she was wearing the right size, she'd felt uncomfortable, so Mai had offered to help her instead. And she'd been helping ever since.

"How much did you say this one was?" Anzu asked, twisting around and reaching for the tag, but Mai grabbed it before she could and covered the price.

"If you want it, you got it! Don't worry about the money, just let me spoil you!" Mai smacked an affectionate kiss on her friend's cheek and ripped the tag off the strap. When Anzu looked at her in shock, Mai smirked and said, "Wear it out of the store. I'll still pay for it at the counter. Be sure to grab the rest of the set on your way out." Mai released her and pulled away to start gathering together the things they'd decided to buy while hanging the rejected merchandise on the hooks for the employees too gather and return. Anzu reached for her shirt and started buttoning up the pink blouse, hoping it was opaque enough that the red didn't show through the fabric. She was only halfway through buttoning it up again when her phone rang. She picked it up and looked at the caller: Yugi.

"I'll go pay for these while you finish up," Mai said with a smile.

"Alright. Thanks again, Mai."

Mai slipped out of the stall and closed the door swiftly as Anzu answered her phone.

"Hey Yugi, what's up?" Anzu delicately held the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she continued buttoning her shirt.

"Anzu, I'm so scared! Kaiba said that one of our friends had attempted suicide, and I didn't know who else to call, I'm just so worried, and—"

As soon as Yugi had mentioned suicide, Anzu had dropped her phone, then fumbled to catch it before it hit the floor. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

"—What are we going to do?" was the last thing Anzu heard through the phone.

"Okay, okay, we just need to calm down a bit. We'll start calling our friends to just make sure that they're alright. You call Joey, Tristan, and Serenity, and I'll call Ryou, Duke, and Marik. I'm at the mall with Mai, so I know she's fine. When you've spoken with the others, call me back and let me know."

"Okay, sounds like a plan." Yugi sounded marginally calmer than he had before. "Thanks Anzu. I'll talk to you later."

They hung up, and Anzu dropped her phone into her purse, her hands shaking slightly as she tried to process this info.

"Sweetie? Are you alright in there?"

Mai's voice at the door made Anzu jump. She went to the door and threw it open, grabbing Mai's hand and pulling her back into the stall with her.

"Whoa! What's—"

"I think Ryou's in trouble!" Anzu burst out, then explained what-all she knew from her call with Yugi. "Remember that night when he slept over, when he said that he'd considered suicide before?" Anzu's eyes started watering as the thought of Ryou, depressed and hopeless, trying to take his own life, entered her mind. "Oh, this is all my fault!" She started to cry, and Mai quickly hugged her and hushed her comfortingly.

"Don't blame yourself, darling. You can't blame yourself for his depression. There's only so much we can do to help him."

"But I could have done more!" Anzu protested. "Besides, that's not all..." And Anzu explained how she had found Ryou in the park, and he'd given her necklace back, and how she'd hit him. That was a week ago, now, but it still made Anzu feel like a horrible person, even more so now because of what had happened.

"This is all speculation right now, love," Mai sad calmly, taking some tissues out of her purse and dabbing gently at Anzu's running eye make-up. "How about you finish getting dressed, we go out to my car, and we make those calls to confirm that your friends are safe. If we can't get a hold of Ryou, we'll go to the hospital and see if he's been admitted. Okay?" She curled one finger under Anzu's chin and tilted her face upwards, gracing her with a gentle smile that Anzu reciprocated.

"Okay." Anzu took a deep breath and accepted the second tissue Mai handed her, using it to dab at her eyes. "I just hope he's okay."

* * *

When Ryou woke up in the hospital, he was confused at first. Why was he here? What had happened? He recalled being on the ledge and not knowing what to say so that he could get down without getting into any trouble. Then Bakura had taken over and... What _had_ he done?

Ryou sat up carefully, trying to determine if he had any physical injuries. There were none that he could detect, but his mouth tasted awful and dry. Nobody was around, so maybe he could just sneak out without anyone noticing. He unplugged the IV catheter from his wrist and removed the wired patch stuck to his chest that was recording his heartbeat. He was wearing a hospital gown, which left too much of his skin exposed, making his skin start to prickle with goosebumps. He saw his clothes folded in a stack on a chair and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, reaching for them and putting on the Millennium Ring before reaching for his boxers and jeans. He dressed as quickly as he could, not sure how much time he had before someone came to check on him.

 _Bakura, what the hell did you do?_

 _I didn't let that ambulance go to waste, that's for sure._

 _Do you have any idea how much a stay at the hospital costs?_

 _Doesn't matter; we're skipping out on the bill, anyways._

 _We're getting out of here altogether. I don't belong here._

 _Well,_ technically _, you do, since you drank a bottle of cough syrup while standing out on a ledge._

 _So_ that's _why we're here._

 _Yes, you're quite a troubled teen. Clinically depressed with expression of suicidal tendencies, or so they claimed._

 _I can't say they're wrong_ , Ryou thought bitterly, wishing that he could argue with such a diagnosis. He discarded the hospital gown on the bed ans slipped on his sneakers before approaching the door as calmly as he could. If he could just walk out of here as if he'd been visiting a friend and act like he wasn't doing anything wrong, then he would have a chance at walking out of here without being caught.

He tucked his identification wristband inside the cuff of his hoodie sleeve—he didn't know if the lavender color of the wristband meant something special, but this was a hospital, so he wouldn't be surprised if the colors were significant—and slipped out of the doorway, turning to the left and casually walking down the hall with his hands in his pockets. He considered pulling the hood up to cover his distinctive hair, but wearing a hood indoors would only look suspicious. He avoided meeting the eyes of any nurses or doctors, afraid that if he looked directly at them, they'd be able to tell that something was wrong, that he didn't belong. He was almost to the stairs when one of the female nurses, clad in aqua scrubs from head to foot, stepped in front of him and held up her hand.

"Excuse me, sir, you need to return to your room and wait for the doctor to see you," she said firmly. There was kindness in her eyes, though, which meant that Ryou might have a chance at talking his way out of this.

"I'm sorry, you must be mistaken," he said with a smile, adopting his most charming expression and tone. "I was just here to visit my brother, and I'm on my way out now."

She lifted an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"People get us mixed up all the time, it's understandable," he said graciously, forgiving her misidentification. He started to edge around her, but she didn't seem fully persuaded.

"Can I please see your visitors' band?" she asked, her hand outstretched to receive his hand, making Ryou feel nervous.

"Oh, here it is." He held up his wrist and pulled the sleeve cuff back slightly, enough for the white tab with his name and info printed on it to stick out, but quickly covered it again, starting to step away.

"Sir, I need you to—"

Ryou pretended not to hear her, and while he normally would have felt a twinge for being rude, he had more important things on his mind right now.

"Thank you for your help with him!" he said, waving as he started walking past her. "I really appreciate it!"

She was still trying to get his attention as he walked away, picking up the pace as he felt his heart beat more rapidly. He'd been caught, but not stopped, even though she was still trying to stop him. As she caught up with him, she pulled on his sleeve, jerking him to a stop. It was harder for him to keep smiling.

"Sir, I need to see your _entire_ wristband—"

"I don't _belong_ here," he said suddenly, voice insistent and sad as he kept his hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. "Please just let me go; I don't belong here."

She tried speaking again, but this time she was interrupted by someone else.

"Ryou!" Anzu had just emerged from the door leading to the stairway, and the instant she saw him, she could keep from calling his name. She went straight to him, throwing her arms around him an hugging him tightly. Relieved to see her, Ryou hugged her in return.

"Ryou we were so worried about you."

That was Mai's voice, and for a moment, he was squashed between both Mai and Anzu as they hugged him. Mai released him, but Anzu didn't, which was fine by him.

"Thank you _so_ much for taking care of him." Mai thanked the nurse warmly, taking charge of the situation. "When he ran off, we had no idea where he'd gone, and I was so afraid that he was going to hurt himself somehow."

"And what relation are you to the patient?"

"He's my little brother, and I _absolutely_ love him to pieces, but he's always had problems, bless his heart." Her hand fluttered to that cardiovascular organ as a small sigh escaped her lips.

"You're his sister?" The nurse seemed incredulous.

"Just because he's adopted doesn't mean I love him any less," she declared, as if it were something she'd explained a hundred times. "No matter how many times I say it, though, he doesn't seem to fully believe me."

Ryou didn't see Mai throw him a pitying look. He was too caught up with Anzu, who was whispering tearful apologies into his ear as they embraced. He murmured sad assurances, trying to assuage her sense of guilt as he let her presence soothe him. He was only listening to Mai's story with one ear and half his mind.

"He's been seeing a doctor for a while, but it's always been a struggle getting him to open up, and sometimes we can't always tell what's going to upset him or set him off." Mai continued prattling with such conviction that Ryou almost believed her. "Anyways, thank you so much for caring for him, but it'd be best if we brought him home to see his own doctor. Where can I sign him out?"

Mai began to take care of the paperwork and paying the bill while Ryou and Anzu continued to hold each other, neither of them ready or willing to let go. Anzu was relieved to see him alive, and Ryou was relieved that someone had come looking for him.

"I love you, Ryou. I don't want to see you hurt."

"I love you too, Anzu," Ryou whispered back. He hadn't said it the first time she'd told him that, but he was saying it now, because now he knew it to be true. They remained caught up in each other as if they'd been separated for years, only brought back to the surface of reality when Mai informed her "brother" and his girlfriend that they were cleared to leave, but Ryou had only been released on the condition that he'd be immediately admitted to a psychiatric facility in some capacity. As they moved towards the stairs to leave, Ryou was holding Anzu's hand.

They stayed close to each other and Mai as they left the hospital through the main lobby, Anzu explaining how they'd known to come looking for him at the hospital, adding that she'd told Yugi that Ryou was fine as soon as they confirmed he'd been admitted to that hospital. He thanked her for her discretion, relieved that he wouldn't have to face their other friends concerning this. He wouldn't know what to say to them, or if they'd even stay friends with him. The less they knew, the better off they were, the _safer_ they were.

"Where are we going?" Ryou asked as he and Anzu climbed into the backseat of Mai's convertible together.

"I'm doing what I told the nurse I would do: I'm taking you home."

* * *

 _ **Please review if you want to see what happens next!**_


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